It is often desirable to measure an object and provide the resulting measurements to another party. For example, one may measure a window, floor, wall, or room and provide the measurements to another party for the design, manufacture, and installation of products such as window treatments, carpeting, wall paper, etc.
The importance of obtaining accurate measurements and providing the accurate measurements to another party is illustrated by the window treatment industry. The building industry has created windows of varying sizes and shapes which have been incorporated into home designs in ways limited only by the imagination of architects and builders. An effective window treatment solution must be both decorative and functional and take into account the attributes and surroundings of each particular window to balance the practical aspects of light control and privacy with decorative and aesthetic factors. The successful design and manufacture of custom window treatments generally requires: accurately measuring the window; designing and producing a treatment in accordance with the accurate measurements; and installing the treatment.
The biggest stumbling block in the industry has proven to be the first step—the ability to efficiently obtain accurate and complete measurements of the windows. As indicated by the old carpenters' saying, “measure twice, cut once,” it is only through accurate measurements of the windows and the delivery of these accurate measurements to designers and manufacturers that the efficient design, production and installation of window treatments can be accomplished. But inaccurate measurements remain a bane of the industry, often leading to window treatments that are unsuitable for installation and requiring the remeasuring of the windows and the remanufacture and reinstallation of the treatments. This results in increased costs, unacceptable delays, and unsatisfied customers.
The prior art method of providing window measurements generally consists of a worker making a sketch of a window. For example, a worker may draw a sketch of a window on paper and write the measurements of the window, the panes, and the space around the window on the sketch. This process is susceptible to errors and mistakes however, and even in cases where the sketch itself is accurate, critical information beneficial to designers and manufacturers is often omitted. For example, the person taking the measurements often fails to mention that there is a door, recess, or adjacent wall near the window that could affect the design, manufacture and installation of the treatment. Furthermore, a party receiving such a sketch has no way to readily verify its accuracy and therefore risks designing or manufacturing a treatment of the wrong dimensions. This is especially true when the actual manufacture of the treatment is done overseas, making it unrealistic for the manufacturer to take the measurements. Language barriers may further complicate matters. Thus, the manufacturer is often unable to obtain accurate and verifiable measurements prior to manufacture the risk of providing unacceptable product.
This inability to provide accurate and verifiable measurements ripples through the entire window treatment process. For example, parties that design window treatment solutions can ill afford to take time from their more profitable design tasks to travel to the installation site and take the measurements themselves. Instead, designers typically prefer to have someone else take the measurements and supply the measurements to them. Because these measurements are not readily verifiable however, inaccuracies in the measurements often go undetected resulting in unacceptable treatments which must be redone, often at significant cost.
While it is possible to photograph windows and provide the resulting photographs to another party, it is difficult to verify measurements associated with such photographs. For example, it is impractical to generate such photographs on a 1:1 scale with the actual window so a user can measure the photographic image of the window to determine the measurements of the actual window. Instead, a viewer must attempt to convert the size of an object in a photograph to the size of the actual object by using some sort of conversion factor. But photographs can be taken from a variety of angles and distances making it difficult to derive a standard conversion scale. Perspective is one effect that prevents the easy and accurate determination of the size of an object from a photograph. Perspective is the phenomena whereby the apparent size of an object decreases with increasing distance from the eye. For example, parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, may appear to converge in the distance to a central vanishing point. Accordingly, objects that are closer to a camera appear larger in a resulting photograph than objects that are further away when the photograph is taken. Further complicating the matter are distortions which often affect images. For example, two common optical distortions are barrel distortion and pin cushion distortion which make objects appear stretched or compressed from their actual dimensions. Distortions may also result from the particular viewing mechanism used to view the photograph, such as a computer monitor. Thus, a typical photograph of a window does not provide a viewer of the photograph with a complete and verifiable biography of the window from which to generate window treatments. While the above discussion relates to windows and window treatments, similar problems and issues arise when measuring other objects.
There is a need for a method and system for obtaining and providing accurate and verifiable measurements. There is also a need for a method and system that allows for the easy and accurate determination of the size of an object from a photograph. There is also a need for a method and system for efficiently and cost effectively providing custom window treatments.